A look at Dark Souls' overpowered and game-breaking "GiantDad" builds and how they altered the gameplay of Elden Ring and other FromSoftware RPGs.

Long, long ago, a fearsome "Legend" struck terror into the hearts of the Dark Souls gaming community - a min-maxed, stun-locking champion spoken of only in frightful whispers, referred to only by a single name: "GiantDad," who may have actually inspired elements of Elden Ring's combat. Besides being a hilarious internet meme and a frustrating (though not invincible) foe during Player versus Player duels, GiantDad and other similar character builds demonstrated how certain broken Dark Souls mechanics could be heavily exploited by savvy players, inspiring FromSoftware to heavily tweak the combat gameplay of Dark Souls III, Elden Ring, and other Souls-style computer RPGs.

The GiantDad build's unique combination of weapons, armor, rings, and stat distributions were popularized by a YouTube content creator called OnlyAfro in their 2012 Dark Souls parody meme video "HE'S BACK." Besides showing gameplay footage of the GiantDad build fighting other Dark Souls player characters in PvP combat, OnlyAfro's video also codified the personality of both GiantDad and the hypothetical Power-Gamers who would create such a character; juvenile, profane, obsessed with "pwning noobs," prone to accuse other players of being "casul," and liable to flaunt their victory over their opponents with the wide-armed "Well, What Is It?" gesture and declarations that "THE LEGEND NEVER DIES."

GiantDad, outside of its memetic appeal in videos like the aforementioned from AfroDad, has a complicated reputation among players in the Dark Souls fandom. Some see it as a cheap Dark Souls character class build that's needlessly frustrating to face in PvP and stops their users from actually growing skilled at the game. For other Dark Souls fans, GiantDad style builds help make the challenges of the single-player Dark Souls story more accessible to players while also acting as the ultimate test of PvP prowess; an invader, cooperator, or host in the Dark Souls: Remastered community who's able to defeat a GiantDad foe without getting staggered to death has both masters the game's mechanics and their ability to read the moves of their opponents. It's unclear whether FromSoftware developers are actually aware of the GiantDad meme (though the fighting style and backstory of the Armored Warrior mini-boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice might be a shout-out); even so, the core combat gameplay in Elden Ring and other more modern FromSoftware fantasy RPGs have clearly been tweaked to keep heavily armored GiantDad builds from being just as overpowered as they were in the original Dark Souls.

How GiantDad Builds Worked, And Why They Broke Dark Souls

Players of Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls Trilogy, and the recently released Elden Ring are able to collect a vast amount of helms, chest armor, gauntlets, and leggings over the course of a play-through, and can theoretically wear these armor pieces in any possible combination. Heavier armor pieces minimize the damage players take from enemy attacks, but cause PCs with a low amount of Endurance (or Vigor in Dark Souls 3) to move and roll around clumsily if the total armor weight in Dark Souls is too high. The first Dark Souls game also gave armor sets a unique feature called Poise, a quality that granted player characters immunity to being stunned or staggered by enemy attacks; GiantDad-style builds were made to exploit this specific quality.

According to OnlyAfro's famous Dark Souls parody YouTube video, a GiantDad player character has 48 Vitality to maximize the size of their health bar, 66 Endurance to maximize their stamina bar/equipment load, and the minimum necessary investments in every other character attribute. By equipping the Havel's Ring, the Ring Of Favor and Protection, and the Grass Crest Shield, a Dark Souls player character's health, stamina, and stamina regeneration are further increased. The heavy Zweihander great sword weapon can be wielded two-handed with relatively low Strength and Dexterity scores, and if infused with the Chaos Flame Ember, will do damage based on the character's Humanity level. To cap it all off, the player gains a large amount of Poise by donning the chest piece, gloves, and leggings of the Giant's Armor Set, plus a smidgen of extra equip load if they also wear the Mask of The Father headpiece (this combination of Giant-themed armor and Father-themed headgear is where the epithet GiantDad comes from).

The GiantDad Dark Souls build described above was designed to be a parody of power-gaming players and their quest to create a perfect Dark Souls PvP character. Consequentially, it isn't quite as optimized or unstoppable as it presents itself (parries, backstabs, and long-ranged weapon attacks are a good counter to GiantDads, among other things). Still, in competent hands, this build can be devastating against both bosses and PvP invaders. With its high poise, damage reduction, stamina and health, Dark Souls GiantDads can wade through the weapon attacks of opponents, more easily circling around to perform backstabs or stun-locking them to death with multiple swings from their Chaos Zweihander.

How Dark Souls & Elden Ring Improved GiantDad Builds

The developers of FromSoftware RPGs published after Dark Souls wound up adjusting the core combat mechanics of their games to prevent high endurance, heavy armor set builds in Souls games like GiantDad from being quite as over-powered. In Dark Souls 2, for instance, a character's Poise rating only negates stagger when they're in the middle of attacks, while in Dark Souls 3, Poise mainly serves to boost the Hyper Armor of certain weapon attacks – the heavier a PC's weapon and armor, the most resistant a PC's weapon attack is to being interrupted. The Poise system in Elden Ring, the newest Soulslike RPG of FromSoftware, seems to be a blend of the Poise mechanics from Dark Souls 1 and 3. High Poise protects an Elden Ring PC from being stunned even when they're not making weapon attacks, but can be depleted by repeated attacks and regenerates over time. Certain Talismans in Elden Ring, as well as consumable items and weapons with Hyper-Armor attacks, can boost the effectiveness of a PC's Poise, and Elden Ring players are still experimenting with different equipment combinations and attribute point investments to see what the ideal High Poise build is.

Elden Ring, as the culmination of the Soulslike RPG sub-genre pioneered by FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki, tries to entertain players with a rewarding, intricate combat system, including the best elements of previous Souls games while excluding their more unbalanced aspects. The GiantDad build of Dark Souls, in this respect, is a litmus test of sorts; if Elden Ring's combat system lets players create strong high Poise character builds in the style of GiantDad while not invalidating other builds or combat strategies, then FromSoftware will truly have created an RPG players of classic and modern Soulslikes can both enjoy.

Next: Elden Ring: You Should Join Volcano Manor

Source: AfroDad/YouTube